Keep A Positive Attitude: From Daunting Orals to Defending Your Science

By Jenny Pham posted 11 days ago

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Keep A Positive Attitude: From Daunting Orals to Defending Your Science

In an earlier blog, attitudes involved for better teaching (Nernst equation and elevation of boiling point) were raised. In this contribution, one’s own attitudes towards presenting findings to an audience are discussed. Before ever starting a career, being required to give one’s first talks on topics to others can be daunting experience. How does one handle nerves and keep the audience’s attention?

In my own case, such presentations that were encountered (orals for honours and the like) were doubly fearful for me due to my background. Coming from being a country lad to the city for my undergraduate degree was in itself a challenge but added to that I grew up with a speech impediment to make matters much worse. Whilst written work and exams came easy enough, during my third year at Uni, one chemistry topic involved polymers that was taught by the Head of School. We were all required to give a talk on a topic selected for each of us. I don’t recall the specific plastic I had been given, but having done precise analytical chemistry at work in industry made me less than enthusiastic about the more imprecise methods used for polymetric size analysis and their resultant properties. Needless to say, my hesitant presentation did not go over well making me worry more the next year when required to speak about my honour project. What was needed to settle my nerves to give a polished oral?

Fortunately, my honours project was easy to measure accurately all quantitative analytical results and I made an early discovery that pH control was a critical parameter for the reaction to go to completion. It was necessary to buffer the pH to measure stable kinetic reaction rates. For this, various sodium acetate/acetic acid mixtures were able to buffer solutions over the appropriate pH range. The reaction under study was the oxidation of hydrazine by silver oxide, both of which affected pH. The reaction products were nitrogen gas, measured volumetrically to establish rates and silver deposited as a mirror that then acted as a catalyst. This study was later published (ref). The first lots of results only went to about 80% completion as pH was not controlled but once the buffer was added, rates and complete reactions were reproducibly obtained. Later in the year came the dreaded oral.

For the oral preparation, as all my results were recorded early on, I had plenty of time to write up and develop a set of detailed slides for the presentation and unlike the presentation a year before, for this project, I had the assurance that I knew more about it than anyone else. Thorough preparation was a key to passing on the findings clearly and thus holding the attention of the audience. I was surprised on the day of the presentation, that the auditorium was nearly full of other students and all the staff members. The other advantage I found was the room was darkened to present the slides and overhead transparencies… whilst the audience could see me, they were less obvious in the darkened background. This gave me the feeling I was in effect talking to what seemed more like an empty room. Having fully rehearsed the presentation, the delivery felt like it had gone over without any significant hitches.

Lights were then turned on again, and many direct questions came from students and staff alike. One unforgettable question raised by a student was whether the use of sodium acetate would change the solubility of the silver oxide to which I replied ‘No, in any case adding sodium acetate should merely enhance solubility.’ At this point, the Head of School who was sitting in the front row, piped up ‘Wrong, solubility should decrease!’ Normally, such an unexpected confronting objection would have made me recoil back into submission. Fortunately, I had beforehand unwittingly thought through what sodium acetate might do and decided its likely effect. Hence, I replied ‘Not so, the solubility of a partially soluble compound like silver oxide is governed by the activity of ions in the equilibrium equation, so adding ionic sodium acetate would lower the activity of all ions and thus enhance solubility.’ This effect was in fact a topic taught in physical chemistry by the Head of School himself and to the surprise of all he apologetically replied ‘Of course.’ Once again being well prepared allowed not only a better presentation of the whole research topic, but gave me the courage to defend my viewpoint in face of learned opposition.

Some ten years later, when moving from an industrial research chemistry position back to a tertiary education institution, here too thorough preparation was the mainstay for effectively passing on key gems, important when educating students.

Furthermore, having the conviction of knowing a topic in detail gives one the persistence to challenge bureaucratic objections that can limit progress.

In the area of fuel chemistry, aviation gasoline (avgas) production in Australia shut down in 1978 for two years. Agricultural pilots as well as private operators like myself became grounded due to limited overseas supplies. These operators wanted to use petrol as an alternative fuel as they flew near ground level to keep bread on the table for their families, but it was disallowed by the aviation authorities. The main safety issue was a higher petrol volatility and I developed a volatility tester (ref). Avgas was formulated just prior to World War 2 to eliminate vapour pressure problems when they climbed rapidly to high altitude for combat. This requirement was less important for agricultural pilots. It developed into a research project, but bureaucratic authorities here would not allow flight testing in any form for petrol. It took a face-to-face visit to the minister for aviation before he overruled that I could do test flying. A company (Petersen Aviation) in the USA took up manufacturing the tester and they independently gained approval for use of motor gasoline. Combined with my findings and the USA approvals, petrol then became legal here. Agricultural pilots being the first of the mark to take advantage of it. During this time, unleaded petrol also became available and this made further additional savings resulting from lower maintenance and longer engine life. Petrol is now sold for aircraft fuel at many local airfields.

Once again, not being intimidated by superiors or bureaucrats when one is sure of the facts leads to improvements and cost savings.

References

R J Hodges and W F Pickering, "The Oxidation of Hydrazine by Silver (I) Oxide", Aust J Chem, 1966, 19, 981-91.
R J Hodges, "Portable Vapour Pressure Test Device", Provisional Application 1979 PE 0722, 10 pp.